The story “Impulse” is about a man named Michael Lowes who lives a boring life and enjoys his nights off from work. What appears to be an ordinary night with friends turns out to be a life changing night that is caused by events caused by a friendly conversation about impulses. Michael’s wife looks down on him, and he has to lie to spend time with his friends who he doesn’t really like very well. One thing leads to another and Michael finds himself in jail because of a shaver he stole from a drug store. It isn’t until he’s in jail that he realizes his life is over. His wife divorces him and takes the kids away leaving him absolutely nothing but his shame.
Michael Lowes, the main character in the story “Impulse”, has a tough life. He didn’t have a great job, and he always had unpaid bills. He did, however, have a college education. Michael had a wife named Dora who he thought he knew well, and two children named Dolly and Mary. He was always moving from one place to another trying to make a living, therefore never making any friends. Michael worked hard and felt he needed time to relax, and every other week he would play bridge with his acquaintances. Michael has a pretty boring life and does the same thing every day. He never did anything wrong and always followed the rules. But one night while he was playing bridge, the idea of “impulses” came over him, and he could not stop thinking about it. He wanted to do something different and feel alive. The idea of stealing something really fascinated him.
Michael was in a way scared to stand up to his wife and had to lie to her to do what he wanted. He really believes he is a good person regardless of what people tell him. In the morning he has a fight with his wife, but looks forwar...
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... has a lousy job, a lousy wife, and lousy friends. Yes, there are people who give in to their impulses and get away with it, but it’s always the good ones that get caught. I can relate to Michael being that he is a good person who never does anything wrong and has people closest to him look down on him. I know if I would do something that Michael did I would get caught because that’s my luck. Unfortunately, the ones who don’t get caught are the evil ones who continue to do bad things with zero consequences, and that is the problem in this world.
Works Cited
Handa, Carolyn. “’Impulse’: Calculated Artistry In Conrad Aiken.” Studies In Short Fiction 12.4 (1975): 375. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 May 2014.
Winehouse, Bernard. “’Impulse’: Calculated Artistry In Conrad Aiken.” Studies In Short Fiction 15.1 (1978): 107. Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 May 2014
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
May, C. E. (2012). Critical Survey of Short Fiction: World Writers (4th ed.). Ipswich: Salem Press.
The theme of this story is that when something bad happens you need to talk about it. It can trigger more and more problems if you don’t get it off your chest. When you keep the secret to yourself it builds up and eats away at you. Then it makes you angrier about the problem. By not telling anyone it doesn’t help the problem any.
Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol.
Introduction:The road to maturity and adulthood can be a long and difficult road for teens, especially when it comes to decision making and changing your view on the world. The popular short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, written by world-renowned author, Evan Hunter in 1957, displays this perfectly. Hunter uses the protagonist, Andy, to illustrate his development from adolescence into adulthood as he shifts from a state of ignorance to a state of knowledge, from a mindset of idealism to realism and from a selfish personality to a selflessness personality. Hunter expresses the major theme of coming of age through this protagonist character who is seen shifting from a state of adolescence to a more matured state of adulthood throughout the story.
“Point it in the right spot. Just pull the trigger.” Suicide whispers at your ears. You’re so close to death you can feel it take you in like you take in the sun on a warm summer day. Except it’s not summer, you’re not warm and you are dying. You are choosing the quickest way to end the pain you feel inside, not thinking of the pain you are going to cause the people around you. Like Vanessa, Tony and Connor did in the book Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. What is the point of suicide?
Throughout the novel Swallowing Stones, Michael is faced with problem after problem. Each problem that occurs, he must make choice after choice. Michael is faced with a position that he must make the choice that will change the course of his indefinitely. Michael soon finds out the mystery death of Charlie Ward. Soon Michael starts asking himself the question “Could he be Charlie Ward’s Killer?” Michael is sure of it. He is now faced with the ultimate consequences that he must face. He knows that if he turns himself he might be let off easy. But then Joe gets him thinking about how easy it would be to just get away with it. He knows that there is know way that they could ever trace that bullet back to his Grandfathers antique rifle, or could they.
The story begins in a small town in America. The Fowler family is faced with the burden, frustration and pain of having to bury their twenty-one year old son, Frank. The inward struggle faced by Matt Fowler, his wife, and family drives him to murder Richard Strout, Frank's killer, in order to avenge his son's murder and bring peace to himself and his family. Matt faced a life-time struggle to be a good father and protect his children from danger throughout their childhood. Dubus describes Matt's inner ...
Chris a sixteen year old African male enter into therapy seeking professional help. Chris grew up in an urban neighborhood in New York, together with his mother and father. Chris develop problems due to longing attention. He begins to act out, hang around with the incorrect crowd, and get into fights.
As the story begins, the character of the husband has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, is narrow-minded, and is jealous of his wife’s friendship with a blind man named Robert. His constantly complains that “a blind man in my house was not something [he looked] forward to” (362). The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert provokes his insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten years and during those years, they have exchanged countless tapes regarding experiences they have gone through. Because of this, her husband feels “she [has] told him everything or it so it seemed” (363) about their relationship.
There was once a man, for the sake of the story we’ll name him James. James had been lucky enough to be born into a great family. His parents had decent jobs their whole lives, so his family had money. With that money and a little bit of hard work it was not too hard for James to make it into one of the top universities, and graduate straight into a decent paying job. After a few years working at that job James had earned a nice house and a beautiful car. At this time he realized that he felt like he needed something more. James decided that with where he was financially now would be a good time to start a family. He began the long journey looking for a wife; and a few years later he found the perfect women, fell in love, and had a child. The one thing James didn’t know about having a family and having a job is how to juggle the two together. He didn’t want to have less money now than he did before he got married, so he started working more hours in order to make up for the income he was losing. In doing this he missed his only child growing up. Before he knew it he was missing his son’s baseball games. His wife was begging him to come home. James was making empty promises, and he was losing control of his life. One day he came home from work and saw a bunch of boxes. His wife came out of their bedroom kissed him on his cheek and walked out the front door; followed by their son. That night James reflected back on a lot of the choices he had made. He realized that he had been doing everything wrong. He thought back to a time when his father took days off of work to do things for him and his mom. At that moment he realized that he needed to change his ways. He realized that there are many things that had a play in his su...
The story begins with Fred Daniels being confronted by three police officers as he is on his way home from work. The Policemen accuse him of murdering a woman who lives next door to the house he works in. The three police officers then beat Daniels, who is innocent of the crime he has been accused of, until he signs a confession saying he murdered the woman. Daniels then escapes the police station and heads underground. While underground, Daniels experiences a series of events that represent self-knowledge and maturity (Smelstor). Daniels originally flees underground in an attempt to live as a free man, but winds up reflecting upon himself and his previous actions. Fred Daniels has no one to count on but himself and he thinks about who he is, what he looks like, and how this could have brought him to confessing to a crime he did not commit. Mainly, Daniels discovers a huge difference between the two
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.
This story shows how a family stuck together in hard times with faith and hard work that they would get through it. Sometimes people may have the same opportunities, but it is very likely all will have different outcomes. The risky nature of Walter may have put the family in a bind with his investment falling through, but what they did still have was each other. At least now, Walter especially, has the opportunity to learn from his